Is recovery the wrong word to use to describe getting over an addiction? The word recovery suggests that you are returning to the person you were before you were addicted. A kind of going back to who you were before your habit got out of control. It is also suggesting that you have had some kind of illness and like an illness you have recovered from are now feeling better, you are on the mend from your affliction.
However, as most people who have changed their lives and moved on from an addictive habit will tell you, they are not the same person they were before they developed their habit. They have grown, they now have new information and their brains are running different programmes. I am not talking about people, who after 20 years without a drink are still terrified that just one drink will set them back, and who have never moved on with their lives, have never found new ways to enjoy themselves, still believing that the only way they can ever be happy again is to drink alcohol. I am talking about the people who have understood that whatever they were using to create a happy and contented live was just an illusion, it was something that they had told themselves over and over again.
So, how do we start the process of creating new programmes in our brain that allow us to ditch the old believes that happiness and contentment can be found in eating something, drinking something, buying something, gambling and any number of other behaviours that have become addictive?
When most people give up an addictive habit, it happens because they have an “enough is enough moment” where something happens in their lives that makes them wake up to the reality of what they are doing, something that makes them realise that the pain they are getting from an addictive habit outweighs any gains they believed they were getting. When the pain of giving up their habit is less than the pain of carrying on. Sometimes it can be a little thing like your son or daughter drawing a picture of you with the glass of wine in your hand for their teacher, mostly it is something more severe like a diagnoses of a serious illness, being declared bankrupt or the breakup of a relationship.
If you are reading this because you know that you have a problem, do you really want to wait for that “enough is enough” moment to arrive? Wouldn’t it be good if you could get back in control and stop spending more time planning to cut down, planning to stop, stopping and starting again and find a way to move forward with your life, to move onto the next phase of your life with a new plan of action.
When I talk to people who have successfully given up an addictive habit the word I would use to describe them is focused. They are focused on the future that they have planned for themselves, a future that has new pursuits and new hobbies, sometimes it is even a new career. They see their addiction as something they did in the past, another person, they don’t dwell on it, they don’t live with never ending regrets and their thoughts on very firmly focused on their new life. They have not recovered from anything, they have not gone back to who they were before they were addicted, they have taken the knowledge and learning that their addiction gave them and used it to create something better. They never go back to the past because that is where their addiction started.
If you are ready to break free from addiction, then start looking forward, you won’t find what you are looking for in the past. What is the new life you want to create for yourself?
If you would like more support on breaking free from addictive habits you can download my
5 top tips to freedom from addiction
which also includes a meditation download to help you put your addiction where it belongs – in the past.
You can also join my Facebook Group – Freedom From Addiction – 14 Day Challenge.
Carol Andrew Hypnotherapy & Coaching 